Mutual Respect
by COOKIECHEESEMAN
Summary: Complete. Lon'qu accidentally finds out Marth's secret while saving his life. Lon'quxLucina, mainly takes place before Lon'qu joins Chrom's army.
1. The Secret Revealed

Mutual Respect

Chapter 1: The Secret Revealed

_How in the world did I lose to that masked swordsman? Really, there was nothing about his technique that I couldn't handle... but whenever he drew close, something snapped in my head; my body just stiffened entirely, and I started to sweat profusely. Those moments of hesitation were what caused me to lose. I don't understand; just what was he doing that prevented me from fighting normally? What caused me to choke in what was just supposed to be a normal duel?_

_Well, he'll be long gone by now. I wonder if he was able to hold his own in the tournament..._

A scream wakes Lon'qu out of his thoughts. Running to the voice, he's surprised to find an assassin attacking the masked swordsman he was just complaining about. The swordsman is deftly holding his own, but the assassin seems perfectly able to predict the swordsman's moves, and soon the swordsman is lying on the ground, blood pouring out of his chest and staining his strange clothing.

Chanting a war cry, Lon'qu runs full blast at the assassin and slices at him with his Killing Edge. Just barely connecting with the assassin's sword hand, due to catching him by surprise at Lon'qu's presence, the assassin grunts in pain, and figuring out that he's at a big disadvantage now, vanishes into the shadows. Lon'qu searches for him in the darkness, but pretty soon it's evident that he's not coming back.

Knowing the danger is gone, Lon'qu rushes to the masked swordsman's side and notices that he is barely breathing. There's no time to get a healer; if he doesn't take action in the next couple of minutes, the swordsman will die, and the assassin will have done his job. Searching through his pockets, Lon'qu comes across his last three-pack of vulneraries, and so he starts to strip the armor and shirt off of the swordsman.

Lon'qu examines this enigma's figure; he is extremely slender for a man, and it appears his whole chest is naturally hairless. It also appears the grave wound that the swordsman's received has caused some swelling; his breasts are protruding out a little more than they should be, and have more shape to them as well; again, at least for a normal man. Ignoring it, Lon'qu starts applying his vulneraries one at a time to the wound near the swordsman's heart. After rubbing all of the substance on the wound and around it, the bleeding stops, and Lon'qu wipes the sweat off his forehead, thankful that the man is not dead.

This is when he notices that the swordsman is no longer breathing. All of the blood loss might be causing his body to shut down!

There's a very good chance that Lon'qu will have to give the dying swordsman breath himself until he starts to breathe again on his own. Not wanting to look at what kind of man he is forced to meet his lips against, Lon'qu closes his eyes as he removes the mask, and then, taking a deep breath, reluctantly brings his lips up to the swordsman's and starts releasing his air into the patient's mouth.

For some reason, the sensation is not one of disgust; in fact, it is satisfying and familiar, tasting somewhat like Feroxi wildberries. When Lon'qu is finished releasing all of his air, he pulls back, and the masked man begins to cough. At this point, knowing that the immediate threat of death is no longer eminent, Lon'qu changes his mind and decides to find out who this masked swordsman is...

But before he opens his eyes, he notices something about the way the swordsman is coughing; it is not a man's cough, evident by its delicate nature. He continues listening, and the swordsman starts to mumble to himself: "Father... father..."

Now Lon'qu is really confused. He could swear that the swordsman's voice was not this high pitched; while his voice was not that low in the first place, it is definitely much higher now. Opening his eyes, Lon'qu takes a look at the swordsman's face...

And as it turns out, the swordsman... is actually a beautiful swordswoman. The mask was protecting the girl's gender, but it was also holding her long, flowing blue hair back from people's gazes, as well as her eyes. With the mask out of the way, it is easy to distinguish the softness of her lips, (in subtlety, not texture) and now that her whole face is visible, her entire demeanour seems a lot more natural, which suits her perfectly.

Despite all of this, though, the facts are still the same. The person he was treating... was a woman.

The person whose lips met his... was a woman.

The man who defeated him in the duel... _was actually a woman!_

Lon'qu actually chuckles to himself; it's no wonder he lost so easily. His intense aversion to women was strong enough to detect that this mystery swordsman was female, and his body reacted because of it. However...

It doesn't explain why he was able to get so close to her...

...or rub vulneraries all over her exposed chest...

...or perform an emergency mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on her...

Finally realizing the true horror of the situation, Lon'qu quickly recoils back from the woman's mostly still body, blushing profusely and fear resonating through his body. How Lon'qu couldn't figure out that this man was indeed a woman much sooner is beyond him...

But trying to explain the situation to the woman is going to be a bit of a problem.

* * *

Author's Notes

Didn't I say my next fic was going to be more serious? It will be... somewhat. Not as much as I originally hoped, but whatever. Come on, don't leave! At least this isn't a humour fic! Then it would be ridiculous! Don't guest review, please!

Most of the time, if I put any sort of questionable material into a story, (for example, certain crack pairings, a bunch of the jokes in AGOH, chapter two of A Mutual Feeling, etc.) I worry about how the public will react, and sometimes I'm embarrassed to have put it in there in the first place. However, there are times where I'm not. The perfect example would be in What I Love About You; the stuff that went on there, I felt that was natural, as well as perfectly reasonable, respectable, and acceptable. I somewhat feel the same way here. Until Lon'qu realized the truth of the matter, there was absolutely nothing unclean or perverted about what was going on; the only difference is that the audience knows differently! :D I think this is important to note.

Seriousness aside, I was pondering for a long time how to refer to the... assets of our favourite female impersonator in a masculine way. I couldn't say pectoral muscles! She was still being referred to as a man, and yet 'breasts' was the only word that I thought could be reasonably used! Ah, the hardships of writing. :p

I originally wrote this in first person, but near the end, I made the executive decision to change to third. Having only Lon'qu's opinions would have been too narrow for the scope of the fic. Just thought I should mention in case the wording seemed a bit off.

Clearly, this is going to be one of those stories with short chapters, and I'm not sure how long it will be, but it will probably only be three or four chapters. I can't write all the time, though, so updates aren't going to be super quick, as usual. Besides, I have to fluff up AGOH first! Then, another request!


	2. Promises

Chapter 2: Promises

Lucina groans lightly at the throbbing pain in her chest, as well as the general weakness of her body. What could have happened? Why is she so weak that she can barely move?

And why is her shirt crumpled and thrown on top of her chest so haphazardly?

"You were... gravely injured," a gruff voice comments, and Lucina weakly turns her head to face the speaker, whose head is cradled tightly behind his knees. "You would have died if I hadn't used my vulneraries on your wound, although it took me much longer than it should have to notice you were a woman... I sincerely apologize."

Trying to sit up, Lucina expends almost all of her physical strength to get a visual on the man who spoke to her. While the crumpled shirt falls down at the change in posture, her long hair generously covers her exposed torso. However, she doesn't feel any embarrassment about what this man saw while she was unconscious. "Think nothing of it... if you hadn't taken action, I would be dead. I am truly grateful for your actions."

"You're welcome, I guess..."

Neither of them do anything for an extended period of time, even as the atmosphere in the room becomes increasingly awkward. It's only once Lucina sneezes that the awkwardness dissipates, due to the swordsman immediately reacting to her actions. "Don't move too much. If you do, the wound may reopen, and I neither have the vulneraries to heal you... or the boldness to be able to help, now that I know your gender," the swordsman cautions, a blush forming onto his face.

Lucina sighs lightly. "So, you know I'm a woman... and you're scared of women, right? Why are you still here?"

An interesting question. Normally, this swordsman won't even breathe the same air as a female if he can help it, she heard from Kahn Basilio earlier.

"It's true that I would leave under normal circumstances. I can't leave you here to die, though, so I'm waiting for someone else to come by," the swordsman answers, refusing to make eye contact. "It would be best, then, if you just sat quietly and rested..."

Lying back down on the ground, Lucina secretly channels energy from her Parallel Falchion into her body, instantly healing her wound into a much smaller scar than before. The energy exchange also recharges her energy reserves to an acceptable level. However, she does not reveal that she healed herself to the swordsman; she is curious about him, and there will be no better time to find out more about him than right now, while he is forced to stay by her side.

"I believe you are a true master of the sword," Lucina compliments, careful to keep her voice sounding weak to avoid suspicion. As she speaks, she channels more energy from the Falchion multiple times to fully heal herself. "If I hadn't been your one weakness, you would have easily defeated me..."

"I said... BE QUIET!"

Lucina nearly gasps at the sudden outburst from the swordsman, and immediately the swordsman notices his mistake and groans into his arms in annoyance. "Sorry..." he apologizes, "but I do this with all women. I can't let them get close to me, or even try for that matter. Considering you are still a dying woman, I shouldn't be that rude..."

"Don't worry about it... Ugh!" Lucina replies, a smile forming on her face as she pretends to moan in pain; she's thinking of a plan to get this swordsman to open up a little bit, at least in the future. "Agh! It's starting to hurt again!"

"What?" the swordsman remarks, deftly standing up into complete battle stance, simply because it's his most natural one. Closing his eyes in worry, he asks Lucina, "will you last long enough for me to get a healer?"

"No..." Lucina moans, now contorting her face to make it look like she's in pain. "I think I'm done... I couldn't change fate. Make me a promise..."

The swordsman, believing that there is nothing that he can do to help, watches as Lucina writhes in supposed agony. "What is... the promise?"

Now is the clincher for Lucina's plan: "Next time you meet me, either alive, or in the afterlife, which is the most likely... spar with me. Teach me to be a better swordswoman..."

Lucina starts to fake cough now, and then, lies absolutely still. From her main timeline, she learned how to play possum quite effectively; no human or Risen can tell if she's dead or alive. Numerous occasions proved this fact to her previously, and now she's using it against this swordsman, even if it's only for more benign reasons.

"She's... dead..." the swordsman comments to himself, kneeling down on the ground and facing Lucina, even though he's still far away from her. "You died because of my inability to help you..." he grimaces, clenching his eyes shut in shame. "So I must honour your request, for fear of my conscience... next time we meet, no matter if I still must keep away from women, I will spar with you."

"Perfect!" Lucina exclaims, and the swordsman's eyes widen considerably as Lucina easily gets up and turns away from him to put her shirt back on and retie her hair into her mask. When she is finished preparing her disguise, the swordsman, frustrated, asks her, "You were faking? How did you heal yourself? And why did you make me promise to spar with you?"

Placing Falchion back into her scabbard, she answers, "You'll find out next time I see you. You truly did save my life, though; I could not heal that kind of damage you saved me from. So, from the bottom of my heart, you have my gratitude," she says, bowing in appreciation. "As thanks, I'll tell you a secret. My name is Lucina. I'm sorry to say that I forgot your name, though."

The swordsman groans in annoyance, but soon enough, he hesitantly answers: "Lon'qu."

"Thank you, Lon'qu. And don't tell anyone about me. You don't want others to hear about what you saw, right?"

A blush rises onto Lon'qu's face again, and Lucina smiles before leaving the room for good. Not ten seconds later after she leaves, she looks behind herself and notices Kahn Basilio enter into the room, laughing and clapping his large hand onto Lon'qu's back.

After observing their conversation, she disappears into the shadows.

* * *

Author's Notes

Took long enough to update, didn't it?

It seems the farther I got into the chapter, the easier it became to write, which is strange; usually it's the other way around. The first half page was torture to write, but by the last page, I was just breezing on through. I wonder why... (maybe it's because the author's notes are the best part! :p)

As a few of you may know, I nearly changed the rating of this fic to M instead of T, due to what a reviewer said. However, in the end, I decided against it. You all probably have an idea about why. I thought that the situation of Lucina was not enough to change the rating, though I should be careful about it in the future. Lemons are NOT allowed in my fics! Only grapes. :p

lambentLodestar mentioned in her review that Lon'qu and Lucina's English voice actors are married in real life. I thought that was a cute coincidence, so I looked it up, and it turns out that it's true! SO ADORABLE! :D Thanks a lot for pointing it out! I wonder if they met like this in real life. :p

I'm partially worried about the way I'm portraying the characters. Yeah yeah, what else is new? The thing is, I'm not super acquainted with Lon'qu and Lucina in general, and I don't want to spoil too much about them by reading other support conversations of theirs, so I've only seen about 5-7 from each of them, when there are many, MANY more to explore. I hope I didn't get them wrong.

By the way, I purposely made the first chapter in Lon'qu's perspective and the second one in Lucina's perspective. Any remaining chapters will be in normal third-person perspective. That's why Lucina's name is not used at all in the first chapter, and Lon'qu's is not used until the end of this chapter. Interesting, isn't it? What? You skipped to the next paragraph to see what I'm doing next? NOOOOOOOO read what I'm saying! :D

I'm not sure if I'll make this fic three chapters or four. I won't worry about it until later, which is what I normally do anyway. Firstly, we're finally starting Lilina's wedding in AGOH! Then, once again, another request!


	3. Future Plans

Chapter 3: Future Plans

"I trust that this evidence will suffice that I am telling the truth?"

Chrom nods hesitantly at Lucina, (currently, though, only Lon'qu knows Lucina's true identity) who's just killed a would-be assassin in front of his eyes. He knows that he will need her help to protect his older sister, even if he still thinks that she is actually only the masked swordsman. Before any plans can be made to defend the area, however, another assassin appears out of nowhere, slashing at Lucina's abdomen.

Lon'qu, currently observing the situation with Chrom, immediately recognizes the assassin as the same one who attacked Lucina previously, judging by the bandage on his sword hand. However, Lon'qu knows he isn't going to let him get away this time. Seemingly slicing through the air with almost inhuman speed, Lon'qu cuts through the assassin's chest, and the assassin falls to the ground, dead.

At the same time, Lucina collapses onto her side and eventually onto her back, barely breathing. It is almost exactly like the previous encounter where Lon'qu first tended to her wounds those many days ago.

"Gods! He's wounded! I have to get a healer!" Chrom shouts, and before Lon'qu can object to the idea of Chrom going instead of himself, Chrom disappears into the castle. As he contemplates the situation, Lucina slowly grunts and opens her eyes, and upon recognizing Lon'qu alone with her again, she sighs in relief, but the severity of the wound is quickly pulling her away from consciousness.

"Lon'qu..." she breathes out, "that assassin must have been... sent from the future... he knew my every move... you may not understand now, but I promise I'll explain everything when the time is right..."

"Huh? The future? What do you mean? Can't you heal yourself again..."

A coughing fit from Lucina interrupts Lon'qu's words, and she gingerly replies, "no, the wound is still too severe to be healed, like last time... and there's no time for vulneraries... but I have an elixir in my pack... use it..."

Her eyes close into the peaceful slumber of unconsciousness, and despite his intense uneasiness at being so close to her, Lon'qu opens her mouth to pour the liquid inside. To his horror, she coughs up the liquid, and none of it gets swallowed. He tries a few more times, but with the same result, leaving him with only a quarter of the elixir to use now.

If she does not somehow ingest this small portion of the elixir, she will surely die.

_How did it come to this? I can't let her die on my account! But... how do I get her to drink that liquid..._

The answer quickly reveals itself to Lon'qu... and he wants no part of it. But seeing no alternative, he has no choice...

...but to administer the elixir to Lucina orally.

_Here goes nothing... there is no way I could do this if she wasn't dying right in front of me..._

After taking off Lucina's mask and moving her hair away from her face, Lon'qu pours the rest of the life-saving liquid into his mouth before meeting his lips with hers, trying his best to open her throat so she can swallow the elixir. As he notices her gulping down the liquid, a glowing light shines around the two of them. After the light dims, Lucina opens her eyes, and when she recognizes the man her lips are meeting with, she stops swallowing and actually starts kissing him, much to Lon'qu's surprise. He cannot tear his lips away, however, much to his surprise, due to the strange familiarity of the kiss, mainly from the flavour of Feroxi wildberries.

After their intimate kiss is finished, Lon'qu pulls away from Lucina, blushing profusely. As Lucina reveals her Falchion and simulates the glowing light a few more times, her strength returns to its normal capacity, and she gets up just as Chrom returns, Lissa in tow. The realization of Lucina's real gender causes both of their eyes to widen in disbelief.

"Well," Chrom starts, somewhat grimacing, "I was wondering from far away why Lon'qu was kissing a man... it's because she isn't... a man..."

"I was _not_ kissing her," Lon'qu defends, backing up even further away from Lucina. "She needed that elixir..."

"And you have my gratitude once again, Lon'qu," Lucina says, bowing in thanks. "And that kiss at the end... well, my father once told me that if a sincere man meets his lips against mine, no matter how out of character it may seem, reciprocate my appreciation in the same way."

Chrom raises his eyebrow in interest, and before anyone can say anything else, Lucina puts away Falchion before continuing, "I'll explain everything later, Chrom. Lon'qu, we'll have to have that spar some other time, when I can reveal the truth. We have an Exalt to save!"

Lucina starts running towards the castle, and the remaining Shepherds immediately follow suit. As they run, Chrom makes an observation: "it's strange; I was actually thinking of giving my future heir the same advice as her. What a coincidence."

Lon'qu doesn't respond; instead, he ponders about any future encounters with the enigmatic swordswoman and how they might turn out.

He may not be able to handle being in close proximity with a woman, but getting kissed by one is still a very pleasurable experience.

_I never should have agreed to spar with her... that being said, perhaps she can help me overcome my fear of women. Better chance with her than a crazy dark mage who would probably just curse me..._

Deciding not to think about it for now, Lon'qu pulls out his Killing Edge and prepares for battle, conscious of his mysterious new companion fighting alongside him in this battle.

THE END

* * *

Author's Notes

Remember everybody! If you want your crush to kiss you, find an elixir, nearly get killed, and notice your happiness increasing as you feel their lips against yours! I actually thought it was a really cute idea, so that's why I used it! Hopefully people will agree with me!

Finally finished! In pure honesty, this was not an easy submission. I lost a lot of motivation to write it once I started the second chapter, but I couldn't just skip out and write crap. Wait, what? Everything I write is crap anyway? Whoops! Guess that takes care of that problem! :p

I hope you guys liked the way it ended! I still needed some romance, obviously. Chrom's supposed advice to Lucina about the reciprocated kissing is just something silly I thought of. Actually, my original idea was for Lucina to reveal to Lon'qu that in her timeline, Lon'qu (at his current age, mind you) was her husband! That would have just been TOO out there, though, even for me!

The dark mage cursing thing at the end in Lon'qu's thoughts are reference to Lon'qu and Tharja's supports, although in a more humourous manner. So far, the marrying of those two (using them as part of my main forces as well) was the only time I used them in the game, but that may change once I start my Lunatic+ playthrough. That won't be for a while, though; I've decided to replay FE4 again! I've now made the executive decision that FE4 is my favourite FE that I've played! I recommend it to any FE fan!

Wait, I can write something new after my next chapter of AGOH and my next request? AWESOME! Hope you guys liked this story! (man, I haven't written my signature for multi-chapter fics since January! :D)

Signed, COOKIECHEESEMAN


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